No discipline? No problem.
Below I share 7 steps on how to get things done even when you lack motivation. These self-discipline tips can be applied to chores around the house, errands, personal projects, and even work tasks.
How to Be More Disciplined:
- Set an achievable goal for the day.
- Create a task list.
- Hide your cell phone (and other distracting devices).
- Do, Don’t Think!
- Take breaks the right way.
- Stay focused but be flexible.
- Reward yourself at the right time.
1. Set an achievable goal for the day.
Before you can motivate yourself and be productive, you must understand what you want to get done.
Create a list of all the things that you want to get done. We will call this the Comprehensive Goal List. I find that being more detailed in my lists helps narrow down the prioritization mentioned later in this post. Instead of writing: “clean the house,” write: “load the dishwasher,” “sweep and mop the floors,” “dust the living room,” and so forth.
Once you have your Comprehensive Goal List, pick one task to become the Priority Task of the day.
TIP: Ask yourself: “What will relieve my stress the most tomorrow if I complete it today?” Whatever task you determine to be the most stress relieving, select this as the Priority Task.
Click here to read my post on living an intentional life.
2. Create a task list.
The next step is to take your Comprehensive Goal List and incorporate some of those items into a Daily Task List.
The Daily Task List should include some tasks from the Comprehensive Goal List as well as tasks like waking up, eating breakfast, skincare routine, showering, going for a walk, and all other typical things you do in a day.
The idea is to create a list that includes these mundane tasks that are easy “victories” for you to complete throughout the day to help you stay disciplined and feel motivated to complete the next task. I like to physically write down this list on paper or on a whiteboard that hangs on my fridge since I find it helpful to physically cross tasks off a list as I complete them.
TIP: You do not need to include all items on your Comprehensive Goal List in your Daily Task List.
Try to be realistic about what you can accomplish in a day. Don’t forget to include the Priority Task!
I typically like to write my Daily Task List in the general order that I’d like to complete them. You’ll learn in tip 6 that the order of the Daily Task List does not necessarily matter, but I find it helpful to have different tasks allocated to general blocks of time.
Blocks of Time Ideas
Weekday
- Before Work
- Work (its own section and task)
- Exercise Class (its own section and task)
- Before Bed
- Bed (I usually include a goal bedtime)
Weekend
- Before Exercise
- Before Breakfast
- Before Lunch
- Before Dinner
- Before Bed
- Bed
TIP: Create your Daily Task List for a day the night before.
3. Hide your cell phone (and other distracting devices).
I am going to get real and be blunt with you. If you sleep with your phone next to your bed, STOP IT.
Before you say: “but I use my phone as my alarm in the morning,” I am going to tell you to grow up and purchase an alarm clock. They have tons of options in big box stores and online, you really do not have an excuse here.
You are already a person who lacks discipline and motivation to get things done in your life, you do not need any excuse or distraction within your reach to feed into your laziness.
I say this with such conviction because I know what it is like to waste time on devices and spend hours upon hours down a rabbit hole only to come out feeling confused and like a waste of space. This is not conducive to accomplishing your goals and being disciplined and motivated in life.
Cell phones are a huge distraction.1 If you are looking to change your life and accomplish things then make it easy for yourself by removing the distractions.
Other Ways to Limit Distraction from Devices
- Set a time limit on social media apps on your phone and other devices.
- Turn off notifications for all apps on your devices.
- Set your phone in a different room from where you work.
- If you fall asleep listening to something, use timed features that do not require you to actively look at a device and use it to shut it off.
- Schedule “deep work”2 in your workday and close out of email during this time.
- Wait at least a half hour to an hour before checking your cell phone in the morning.
4. Do, Don’t Think!
Now time for the fun part.
You’ve gone off to bed, your phone tucked away in the other room, and now you’re drifting off to sleep thinking about all the things you get to cross off your list tomorrow…
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
The alarm goes off and you are off to the races.
Since you followed the tip in step 2, you already have a Daily Task List to refer to right when you wake up and get out of bed. There is no thinking involved at this point. You are reaping the benefits of all that thinking you did the night before.
It is a lot easier to accomplish tasks despite lacking motivation and discipline when you limit your distractions in the morning and have a task list created to refer to.
5. Take breaks the right way.
Another helpful self-discipline tip is to allow yourself breaks.
I find that whenever I am truly lacking motivation, breaks are a great way to combat the monotonous feeling of work and recharge before the next task.
This tip is especially useful when completing my Daily Task List at my desk job.
Taking breaks, however, must be done the correct way to avoid the slippery slope of becoming too distracted, losing steam, and no longer being productive for the day.
An easy way I manage this risk is by limiting the breaks to a specific time.
- Read one chapter of a book.
- Listen to a shorter, 20-minute podcast.
- Set a timer on my phone for 15 minutes when browsing social media.
- Play with my hula hoops for 3 songs on Pandora (yes, I still use Pandora…)
- Take a walk around the block in my neighborhood.
- Chat with a coworker (but pay attention to the clock to limit the conversation).
These are all ways I take breaks between tasks while monitoring the time of the break to not fall into the trap of losing all of the motivation I had early in the day and remaining disciplined to complete the tasks I set out for the day.
TIP: If you find your cell phone or other electronic devices to be extreme distractions, opt for a break that does not require your device.
6. Stay focused but be flexible.
Do your best to stay focused and stick to completing your Daily Task List.
Understand where you are in this self-motivation and discipline journey. It is not always simple to dive right into being a super productive human who always has stuff to do, and completes everything on their task list.
Life happens and things come up that throw a wrench into your plans. This is okay. What I found helps me the most when unexpected emergencies in my personal life or fires at work come up is to re-evaluate the Comprehensive Goal List and verify which task is still a Priority Task. As long as I complete that task, I know I will not feel as stressed tomorrow because I completed the task I deemed most important, and at least something was completed.
Another cautionary tale is to avoid the Busy Work Trap.
There are often times when I am feeling a little more motivated to do things around the house, but find that instead of focusing on what I wrote on my Daily Task List or completing that Priority Task of cleaning the floors, I am reorganizing my closet by length of sleeves and color.
THIS is the Busy Work Trap: a whole lot of doing but a whole lot of nothing getting done.
Do your best to avoid this trap and stay focused on the Daily Task List. Trust me, you will feel better about yourself and continue this trend of discipline and motivation to complete your goals when you stick to whatever it is you set out to do.
TIP: If you find yourself in a Busy Work Trap, take a short break and continue on with a task listed in your Daily Task List.
In Summary:
- Stay focused on completing your Daily Task List.
- Reevaluate your Priority Task when unexpected events occur.
- Take a break if you find yourself in a Busy Work Trap then continue on with the next task on your Daily Task List.
7. Reward yourself at the right time.
This time is important in the day, but I find it necessary to be tactful about when this time is taken.
I would consider a “reward” to be an extended break or activity that lasts for an hour or more. Time spent doing something fun, mentally stimulating, or numbing (depending on your preference) that is not truly related to being productive and completing tasks.
Wait until after you complete the Priority Task or even your entire task list to reward yourself.
By waiting until after you complete the tasks to take this huge break you are limiting the risk of wasting hours of time while still having a lot to do. Timing is everything, especially when there is a lack of discipline and motivation.
Once the day is coming to a close, repeat the process: select a new Priority Task and write a Daily Task List for the following day.
You’ve got this!
Definitions
- Busy Work Trap: tasks that are time-consuming and not consistent with your Daily Task List
- Comprehensive Goal List: a list of all the tasks or goals you’d like to complete if time was not a limiting factor
- Daily Task List: a list of tasks to complete in a day, including both mundane tasks, items from the Comprehensive Goal List, and the Priority Task
- Priority Task: the most important task to complete in a day
If you are struggling with cell phone addiction or social media addiction, check out my story on why I decided to quit social media.
- Skowronek, J., Seifert, A., & Lindberg, S. (2023). The mere presence of a smartphone reduces basal attentional performance. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36256-4 ↩︎
- Newport, Cal. “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.” 20 Nov. 2015, https://calnewport.com/deep-work-rules-for-focused-success-in-a-distracted-world/ ↩︎
